


Beginnings

by InMutualWeirdness



Series: All Heaven's Hours [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Because now he's got two mouths to speak with, But only because they're meaningful, Crossover, F/M, It's hard to care when you're being attacked, Nine does not care about human manners, Nine does not understand human taboos, Nine is doubly sassy, Rose is not the only Wolf, Some of the names are stupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-05 23:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InMutualWeirdness/pseuds/InMutualWeirdness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stop me if you've heard this before. A Time Lord and his daemon escape a war beyond imagination and land on a quiet backwater planet in the Milky Way galaxy. A girl and her daemon live out their existence in the city of London. Both dream of a new life. Both get what they wanted. But the universe never makes things quite that easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Closing Time

**Author's Note:**

> Thus begins the series. I've worked on this fic for almost a year now, and I figured it was high time to post.
> 
> Forestagain, if you ever see this, I thank you for the massive headcanon spree that lead to this thing's creation. I probably wouldn't have done this if you hadn't started the ideas flowing.
> 
> Just a warning: I know the first several chapters will sound very similar to the corresponding episodes in the show, but I assure you that things will change. It is, after all, an AU.

She lived an ordinary life, Rose. Well, ordinary if a little disappointing. She'd admit she had it better than some, but knowing it didn't always seem to help. Even with her mum and Ramathan, Mickey and Lorelei, and her own daemon Shekinah, it wasn't enough. That didn't keep her from waking up to a dead-end job and a messy flat day after day after day. And even though she knew that Shekinah couldn’t help being a wolf any more than people could help staring at the two of them in the streets, both knew that it would be better if things were different. She'd gone nowhere and she was there to stay.

But, like most ordinary people, she knew better than to get too introspective, and spent most of her life worrying about a steady succession of other things. Right now, she was concerned about getting the lotto money to Wilson. And she was a little annoyed with it, to be honest. Why couldn't she just go home?

"Why's it me who has to do this?" she complained, as she and Shekinah got out of the lift. "The warehouse is spooky at night. I don't like it." While Henrik's had an open floor plan for the upper levels, the basement was a veritable labyrinth of concrete hallways and doors. The lighting didn't help matters at all, throwing bleak shadows on everything. All it needed to become a proper horror film was creepy background music.

"You shouldn't worry. Nobody's here," Shekinah reassured her. He sniffed the air again, just to emphasize his point. "I'd notice a fresh scent."

Rose smiled, reaching down for a second to ruffle Shekinah's coarse fur. "Yes. It's silly, me being scared."

They started down the hall, but had only gone a few steps before Rose realized. "Wait a minute, you said no one was here?"

"Yes," Shekinah responded, cocking his head in curiousity. "So?"

"So where's Wilson, then?"

Shekinah stopped abruptly. "Oh. He can't have left already, could he? He'd wait for the lotto money."

Rose made a noise of deep frustration. "Ugh. Why did he have to run off?" She looked down the hall, at the various other doors. "Do you know where he went?"

He checked. "I think. Definitely smelling something here." He proceeded toward a storage room, nose to the ground.

Rose sighed in relief as they neared the room. "Shekinah, you're a lifesaver." She never felt lost, not with her daemon.

The wolf froze again, raising his head, ears swiveling like satellite dishes. "Shh," he hissed, poised for attack. "Did you hear that?"

"No," Rose said, uncertain. "I mean, 'm only human," she joked.

Shekinah didn't laugh. "I'm serious. Something--no, someone's out there. And I don't know who."

Rose was starting to get seriously freaked out. And then her daemon hissed, "They're coming!"

A large, black panther daemon came walking past the hall up ahead. It was terribly impressive, that daemon. It didn't seem to notice them, just loping easily along on almost silent paws, tracking something. Shekinah didn't call out or anything, only standing rigidly in front of Rose as if to defend her. That would be more than enough to put off a stranger, hostile or otherwise. Despite her daemon's odd behavior, Rose still wanted to catch the person's attention. Maybe they could help her find Wilson. The words only died in her mouth when she realized there was no person there to ask.

Suddenly feeling very exposed, she bolted for the nearest room, Shekinah close behind her. She pried the door open and shut it behind them. Thus shutting out any light in the room. As she stumbled blindly around, Shekinah jumped up and flicked the light switch.

"Did you see that?" she asked breathlessly, starting to edge away from the door. "Did you see that! My God!"

Shekinah paced restlessly, hackles raised. "I told you to stay quiet!" he growled.

"I did!" Rose kept staring at the door. "What was that?"

"A daemon!" He sniffed the air again, before shaking his head vigorously. "Ugh, can't smell anything here. Too much plastic and metal."

Rose finally noticed the room where they had taken refuge. She shivered. Mannequins were really creepy when they were clustered together like that. "How can that be a daemon? There was no person!"

"Even if you didn't know , I definitely would!" Shekinah replied, sounding vaguely offended. "She smelled really strange, but she was definitely a daemon."

"What the hell is going on?" Rose demanded. Not that she expected an answer, but it needed to be said.

Shekinah finally stopped pacing. "I don't know." His eyes went straight for the door again. "Daemons can be separated. Maybe this one was."

Rose shook her head. People didn't just do that.  "They'd have to be a witch's daemon. And she'd be a he, in that case."

"Oh," Shekinah realized. "I don't like the looks of this."

"Me neither," Rose huffed. She ran a hand through her hair. "God, a random guy with a huge daemon sneaking around at night."

Shekinah padded over to her, nuzzling her knee. Rose knelt down to hug him, as if to remind herself that he was still there. They were still whole. "Shh. It's okay," he said. "We'll find a way out. We will." He pointed at her pocket. "Call the police. Call somebody. Not everyone's left yet."

Taking a few deep breaths to make sure her hands weren't shaking uselessly, Rose took out her phone. "Maybe we should call the others first," she heard herself say. "They should know what's going on, they can help us deal with it."

Something fell in the back of the room. Rose scrambled to her feet, trying not to scream. "What was that?" She had to try again to speak properly. "What was that?"

Shekinah looked utterly lost. "I don't know! It's all just plastic and machines!"

Rose didn't even try staying calm. "This isn't funny," she snapped, to the empty room. "Whoever's doing this better stop."

The mannequins appeared completely terrifying at this point, but neither of them could stop looking. So they were watching, if not ready, when the mannequins started moving.

"What--who's doing this? Stop! Stop it!"

The mannequins didn't.

The two started to lurch dazedly toward the door, before breaking into a dead sprint. The mannequins cornered them, herding them away from the door. Shekinah snapped at their heels, trying to turn them back. But he did so with desperation, and the mannequins only staggered robotically forward, making horrible creaking sounds. Soon they had their backs against the wall, tripping over boxes on the messy storeroom floor. Rose wondered morbidly if she'd die first or if she'd see Shekinah fade like golden mist.

The nearest mannequins raised their arms, as if readying themselves to strike. Rose closed her eyes, unable to bear it. She was just waiting now, clinging helplessly to Shekinah, waiting for the trigger to be pulled.

Suddenly, she felt someone grab her hand. A flesh and blood man with bright eyes stood beside her. "Run!" he cried.

Both Rose and Shekinah were far too happy to oblige. They tore off, out of the room. Behind them rang the crack of a breaking pipe. A chill shimmered down her spine. Rose ran faster.

The clunk of the mannequins pursued them down the hall, which was suddenly much longer. Shop dummies lining the halls began moving as they passed. In a panic, Rose gripped the man's hand tighter and willed her legs to go faster. The man lead them to the elevator. As the doors slid open painfully slowly, the thudding footsteps got closer. Screaming internally, Rose dashed into elevator, flinging herself into the farthest corner. The stranger got in soon after. He jammed the "close door" button just as a mannequin reached an arm through the doors.

Shekinah helped tear the arm loose.

"Thank you," the man said, smiling genially, as if he'd been complemented. Rose, her life no longer in immediate danger, suddenly realized how absurd this all was. And that the leather-clad stranger had a strong Northern accent, but that thought could be saved for another time. He seemed to know what was going on. And she had a steadily growing list of questions.

Of course, when she opened her mouth, the first thing that came out was, "You just pulled his arm off!"

He didn't even look her way. "Yep. Plastic." He nonchalantly threw the arm over his shoulder at her. Shekinah snarled, startled. Rose caught it and screamed, half expecting it to shoot her or strangle her or something. It didn't, of course. It was just plastic.

"Yeah, real clever of you," she snapped, still staring warily at him. "But who were they? College students?" Even as she said it, she didn't believe it. She hadn't seen a single daemon in the room.

The man stood by the door, arms crossed. "Why would they be students?"

"I--I don't know!" Wasn't he supposed to be answering her questions? Perhaps if she played his weird little game, he would. "Who else would do this? A witch? I mean, yeah, they've got magic and stuff, but they're centuries old. Why would they waste their time pranking a shop girl? Got to be students. Maybe Gyptians, even. No--those things were probably robots of some kind," she realized. "That's why there were no daemons." It suddenly made sense. Well, except for the weird panther.

The man finally turned to look at her, smiling a little. "Well done there."

"Thanks," she replied, not sure how to respond.

"Completely wrong, of course, but good idea."

Rose, feeling frustrated, snapped, "Well, whoever they are, they'll have the police on them. I'll be telling Wilson about all this."

"Don't think the police'll be much good," the man remarked. "They've already killed a man." The doors slid open and he walked outside, not missing a beat.

Rose and Shekinah stared. "Oh God, that's where Wilson went," her daemon said, with hushed horror.

"Anyway, you won't have to worry about it," the man said confidently, as they exited, "because I am going to get you out of here." He turned to the elevator panel, pushing them to the side. He pulled out this small metal rod that resembled a torch with a blue light.

"But--this--" She got cut off as the buttons sparked. The man turned and ran off again. "Wait! Who are they? What are they? What's going on?"

"Living plastic. Creatures made of living plastic." He kept babbling and running, never running out of breath even as Rose’s lungs began to protest in empathy. "They're being controlled by a relay system on the roof. Which would be a big problem if I didn't come prepared." He pulled out this bulky, ominously beeping device that looked a lot like a bomb.

Shekinah, who'd been on guard the entire time, was almost ready to launch himself at the man now. Rose's alarms were screaming in her head. Before either of them could act, the panther from earlier came running up the hall. "Doctor, stop wasting time babbling to yourself," she snapped. "Where did--and who are you?" she demanded, eyeing the two of them with guardedness.

Oh. She was his. They were separated. Rose was practically quaking, but the man--doctor--just met the daemon's stare evenly."They're with me," he said, simply.

The panther narrowed amber eyes. "Doctor, you had better get the civilians out of here. We don't have--"

"--much time. Thank you, I'm aware." He turned back to Rose. "Anyway, I'm gonna go blow things up and possibly die in the process, but you heard her." He ran up the stairs to the door, pulling it open and ushering her out. "Go. Leave. Don't tell anyone, or you'll get them killed."

Not entirely sure what was going on, Rose half-stumbled into the open air. Dazedly, she looked around her, the night sky a welcome substitute for the concrete. A vague part of her realized she should have been grateful that she was alive.

Just as the door was shutting again, Shekinah yelled out, "Wait! What's your name?"

Rose clapped a hand to her mouth and stared at him. Had he just addressed the man?

The man opened the door again. "Oh! I forgot to tell you--"

"He's the Doctor," the panther said, curtly, "and I'm Eliyre."

"What's yours?" the Doctor asked, shooting his daemon a quick glare.

"Rose."

"Shekinah." He met the panther's glare admirably.

"Nice to meet you," the Doctor said, dipping his head. He held the bomb up again. "Now, Rose, Shekinah--run for your lives!"

The door slammed shut. Of course, they ran. After the first block, the shop exploded into a plume of fire. Their ears were ringing the rest of the way home.


	2. Speed Dating

At home, she hung around in a sort of daze. Because she was numb with shock, Mickey and her mum were worrying instead. Well, Mum was probably excited more than worried. She was calling everyone, babbling some recycled script about how lucky Rose was to survive and how she was going to secure interviews.

"Well-paying ones," Ramathan interjected, half-perched on Mum's shoulder as best as a squirrel could. Rose looked at the telly, hoping for a distraction. A useless action, anyway. It was tuned to the news, where footage of the wrecked building was being looped with commentary.

It was all very surreal. She left the room, only to wander back, looking for something. The couch, a chair, something to sit in. Or, better yet, something to collapse into and sleep in for a day or two. Enough time for this to maybe start making sense.

Once she made it to the couch, she half-fell onto it, setting down the thing she'd been carrying. Her brain skipped a beat. She'd been carrying something? The arm. That's right. She stared at it. It felt real and present, unlike herself. Shekinah glared at it in suspicion, sniffing it every now and then.

"It's normal. Almost completely normal," he muttered, confounded. "Smells identical to normal plastic. But how? It shouldn't."

Shekinah, being a wolf, didn't normally end up sitting in Rose's lap. He wasn't a lap dog, or a dog at all, really. But Rose gave him this pleading look, and he understood, clambering up onto the sofa. "Maybe it is normal?" she said. "Stop worrying about it, it's over."

"I can't stop worrying." He let out a whine of frustration. "And you know that wasn't normal! Don't pretend it was anything otherwise."

"Shekinah, you worry enough for the both of us," Rose sighed. "I just don't know what to think right now. Maybe I'm in shock or something?"

Shekinah was about to answer, when his ears pricked up to the sound of footfalls. "Mickey! Lorelei!" he cried, leaping off the couch as the door banged open.

"Rose," Mickey said, plopping down on the couch beside her. She reached over and hugged him, trying to anchor herself somehow. He reciprocated. "I called your mobile. You could've died!" Lorelei chittered with similar worry from her spot on Shekinah's shoulder, her chubby scaled body plastered against his fur.

"I'm fine," Rose replied, a bit overwhelmed.

"She's lucky we even got out in time," Shekinah said, lip curling in distaste. "She really could've died!"

"Shekinah," Rose sighed, starting to get annoyed.

Mickey looked down at the wolf. "Hey, let me worry about her now," he said, half - jokingly. He turned back to Rose. "Honestly, though, what happened? Why'd your shop go up like that?"

"I don't know," she lied. "I was outside when it happened."

Mickey didn't seem to hear her. "Whaddya think caused it, though? Gas leak?"

Shekinah started getting agitated again. "She already said--"

"Rose?" her mum called, walking by with the phone. "It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview."

Rose ground her teeth. As soon as the phone was in her hand, she jabbed the end call button. Ramathan's tail fluffed up like a bizarre brush and he screeched in aggravation.

"What was that for?" Her mum was not pleased. "You've got to find some way to make money. And that way isn't me. 'M not bailing you out." She turned on her heel and walked off, when the phone rang yet again. At least that'd keep her occupied.

Mickey gave Rose a sympathetic look. "Want to go to the pub? You probably need to get away for a bit." Lorelei nodded her head emphatically, although it came off as more of a full-body waggle. It was all rather cute.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Is there a match on?"

Lorelei kept nodding and then caught herself.

"Well..." Mickey said, trying not to look like a git. "There is, but that's not the point. The point is--"

Rose laughed. "Let's go," she said, rising from the couch. "Might as well."

They tossed the arm in the bins on the way.

 

\---------

 

Rose's alarm clock came blaring to life at 7:30 the next morning. She slapped it off and sat up in bed before remembering there was no job to go to. As it turned out, sleeping had not helped her a bit. The incident only seemed more disconcerting the morning after, especially now that she had a day with her tactless mum to look forward to.

"What should I do?" she asked, looking down at Shekinah, who was still lying on the floor.

He cocked his head, trying to give it some thought. "Get up?" he offered, tentatively.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Hey, it's not like you've got anything better!" the wolf protested.

"I suppose."

She went through her whole routine, operating more on habit than anything else. As she walked out to the living room, she saw her mum, still in her ratty pink nightgown, Ramathan sitting above her on the couch. It was hardly an unfamiliar sight, but Rose was suddenly acutely aware that she needed a new job. And as her mum continued to bug her about finding income,  that feeling got worse. Her rant was only cut short by the cat flap.

"Not another stray," Ramathan cried, nose wrinkling in disgust.

"I thought I nailed the thing down," Jackie said.

"Yeah, you thought," Rose sniped, rising from her chair.

"I actually did!" Jackie protested. "See for yourself," she added, leaving the room.

"I will explode if I gotta hang about any longer," Rose groaned, as she headed for the door.

Shekinah snorted at her poor choice words,nudging her gently. "Like she said, we'll figure something out."

Rose put her hand to her face. "Don't you start agreeing with her!"

"Would you rather be unemployed?" he argued. Suddenly, he stood stock still. "No - why's he here?" he growled.

Rose froze, her hand still on the (un-nailed) catflap. "What?" She stood up and peered through the peephole. Sure enough, the Doctor and his odd daemon were snooping at the catflap.

She yanked the door open and they both jerked back in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor cried, hiding his brief moment of guilt with annoyance.

"We live here," Rose replied, equally affronted.

"Well, what do you do that for?" he demanded.

"We just do," she shot back. "And I'm stuck here 'cause _someone_ blew up my job."

Eliyre looked unimpressed. "She's definitely not plastic. We got a wrong signal. Let's go." She started to turn away, muttering, "And of course they have to smell like normal plastic, honestly--"

"Oh no, you don't," Rose said, grabbing the man by the arm before he could follow. "You're coming with me."

She expected him to resist or at least protest, but he came quietly. Which helped matters when her mum asked who was at the door.

“It’s about last night. He’s part of the inquiry,” she lied.

“She deserves compensation,” her mum started to say, and that was more than enough incentive for Rose to retreat to the kitchen. The man met her there shortly after.

Now that the man was actually in her flat, she didn't really know what to do next. “Don't mind the mess," she said, looking around at the clutter in resigned embarrassment. Couldn't really tidy anything up now. "Do you want a coffee?"

"I suppose," he replied. "Just milk, thanks." He hung about the living room, looking around. Just like an ordinary man. Well, except for the panther. Not often you see some exotic predator examining the gossip rags on your coffee table.

"It's not gonna last," she sniffed, perusing an article on celebrity relationships. "He's gay and she's an alien."

"I think we should go to the police," Rose said, taking out the mugs to give herself something else to focus on. "Really. I'm not blaming you, even if it was some prank gone wrong."

"Hardly a prank," the panther snorted. "That was something serious."

Shekinah looked up at Rose with an 'I told you so' expression before replying, "Exactly. So we should tell someone who knows how to deal with it."

"They said they found a body," Rose continued, getting a bit distracted by the daemons' conversation. "He was a nice bloke, Wilson."

"Do you think we should talk to his family?" Shekinah mused. "Or, I don't know, do something?"

Rose shook her head. "We didn't know him that well, really. And what could we tell them? Which reminds me," she added, addressing the Doctor,  "when we go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying. So you'd better explain everything to me."

"We're not going to the police," Eliyre said, curtly.

Rose blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?" she asked, turning from the counter and setting the pot down. "Why're you addressing me?"

The panther rolled her eyes. "Look at him," she said, dryly. "Do you think he's capable of handling this?"

At that moment, the Doctor had grabbed a deck of cards and was attempting to shuffle them in mid-air. They scattered everywhere. "Oi, I heard that," he snapped, his ears reddening slightly.

"With ears like that, you would've," Eliyre sniped in return.

"Don't say that," he protested.

"You don't like them either," the panther observed. "Otherwise I wouldn't think they were ridiculous."

"Please!" Rose cried. "I'm being serious here!"

The cat flap rattled again. "You got a cat?" the man asked.

Rose turned back to the coffee. Might as well get one thing done. "No. Used to."

"Now it's all just strays," Shekinah added, shooting Eliyre a pointed look. "They hang about the estate."

The panther ignored him, furrowing her brow. "Doctor," she warned, leaning back in a predatory position, "it's back."

Rose frowned. "What is?" she asked.  Without warning, the panther bounded forward and pounced. Rose flinched back as Shekinah raced forward, growling. But the daemon wasn't attacking her. She had something else in her claws.

The Doctor was on the ground too, grabbing at something. Rose came cautiously forward,  trying to get a better look. Shekinah was staring in surprise. "It's the arm," he said, bewildered.

"How'd that get there? We threw it out." She got closer, watching the two tussle with it. "Oh stop it, it won't--"

Something grabbed her face. Something plastic and hard. Rose tried to scream, but she couldn't really breathe. Shekinah was howling wildly, "Get it off! Get it off!"

The Doctor pried it from her face, tossing it to Eliyre, who gripped the arm firmly in her teeth as the Doctor pulled out his little device. With a quick whirr, the arm stilled.

Shekinah ran over to her, checking for injuries. "I knew it was dangerous," he muttered, sounding cross. "I knew! Are you alright?"

"It's alright, I've stopped it," the Doctor said, pocketing the device. Eliyre spat the arm onto the floor. "There, see?" He picked it up and handed it to Rose, making Shekinah panic for a moment. "Completely 'armless."

"Yeah, you think?" She smacked him on the head.

"Ow!" he cried.

"Overstayed your welcome again," the panther remarked. "I believe that's a record."

"I figured," he replied, heading for the door.

"Wait!" Rose cried, chasing him out the door and down the steps. "You can't just swan off like that!" If her mum came out asking about that racket, she didn’t want to have to explain it alone.

"Yes I can," the man replied, picking up his pace. "This is me, swanning off. See you."

"You can't leave! That thing tried to kill me!"

"Ten out of ten for observation," he snarked. "Well done."

"You can't just walk away." They were already in the courtyard. "That's not fair! You owe us an explanation!"

"No, I don't."

It was so aggravating. If he was going to pop up again and bring a killer plastic arm to her flat, he definitely owed her something. Especially for not drinking the coffee she made for him. That was especially rude.

"All right then," she said, throwing the gauntlet. "I'll call the police. I'll tell everyone." Shekinah punctuated her statement by showing his teeth. "You said if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Which one of us is going to tell?"

He finally stopped walking. "Is that supposed to sound tough?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of," Rose said, biting her lip. Really, she should be better at threatening, but Shekinah did most of the work. Most people listened because of her daemon. If the Doctor wasn't afraid of him, she didn't really have much else.

"Doesn't work," he said, his daemon going so far as to yawn. They set off again.

"Who are you?" she asked, following his brisk pace. He could at least answer that.

"Told you. The Doctor."

"Yeah, but Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor."

"The Doctor," she echoed. Probably an alias. Who had a name like that?

"Hello!" he said, smiling. Well, if anyone did, it'd be him.

"Is _that_ supposed to sound impressive?" Even if he was impressive, that name sounded pretentious.

His daemon broke into a grin at that. "Sort of," he said.

"Come on, you can tell me! I've seen enough." She'd like to think she wasn't begging, but she really just wanted to know. "Are you the police? Involved with the witches?" He probably was a consort. Rose didn't know if they separated too, but that would make sense.

"No, I was just passing through." Oh come on, was he trying to sound like something out of a comic book? "I'm a long way from home." His daemon shifted uncomfortably at that, pulling closer to him.

"But what have I done wrong?" she asked. "Why do these plastic things keep coming after me?"

"And suddenly the whole world revolves around you," he scoffed. "You were an accident. You got in the way."

"It tried to kill me!" she cried, as Shekinah muttered, "That wasn't an accident." If that was,  neither wanted to think about what that said.

"It was after me, not you," he said, dismissive. "Last night in the shop, I was there and you blundered in. Almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, we were tracking it down, it was tracking us down. It only fixed on you because you'd met me."

"So you're saying the whole world revolves around you," she concluded.

"Sort of, yeah."

Shekinah wrinkled his nose. Never mind; both he and his name were pretentious. "You're full of it," Rose said.

"Guilty as charged," Eliyre muttered, prompting several very offended sounds from her person.

"But the plastic stuff, who else knows about it?"

"No one."

That wasn't reassuring at all. "Nobody else? You're on your own?" Shekinah let out a small nervous whine just at the thought. There were loads of mannequins--did he have to fight them all?

"Well, who else is there?" he replied, rather serene looking for a man alone and far from home. What would that be like? Rose realized that she didn't know, couldn't see herself living differently from the way she was now. That sounded equally as horrifying as being away from home.

"I mean, you lot," he continued, "you just eat chips, watch telly, go to bed, while all the while underneath you, there's a war going on."

He'd lost her again. "Okay, so if we're going with the living plastic, which I don't really believe, but if we're going with that, how do you kill it?" If the plastic things came again, she doubted he'd come to the rescue. He had a world to see and save.

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm," he explained. "I cut off the signal, dead."

"Like radio control?"

"Thought control." That floored her. She stopped mid-stride. Did that mean plastic had brains? Shekinah started pacing, looking suspiciously about the courtyard.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, stopping with her.

"Yeah, fine," she said again. It'd be true eventually. "So who's controlling it then?"

"Long story," he said, finally clamming up.

"But why?" she persisted. "Why shop dummies? They want to take over Britain's shops?"

"No. I told you, it's an invasion. They want to destroy the human race." His ominous words hung between them for a moment before he asked, "Do you believe me?"

Rose shook her head. "No." Not something out of a sci-fi novel.

"You've been listening, though," he pointed out. "Asking questions like there's no tomorrow."

If pumas had eyebrows, Eliyre was raising them. "Never took you as one for gallows humour."

"Huh. Learn something new every day," he remarked, flashing a quick grin.

"Seriously though, who are you?" Out of all the questions, that was the one she wanted to know the most. Of course, he was just as eager to avoid the question.

He went silent for a moment, likely crafting another clever non-answer. "You know what you said earlier?" he finally said. "About the Earth turning? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the Earth's moving and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still."

He looked her in the eye, and in that moment, he seemed so old. "I can feel it. The turn of the Earth," he said, as if sharing some amazing discovery, his voice growing awed and animated. He took her hand, and she held on. "The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go--" His hand fell away, leaving her grasping only the air. "That's who I am." She had to be imagining the twinge of regret in his voice. "Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."

He turned and walked off, arm in hand and his daemon beside him.

 

\---------

 

She should've let him go, like a sensible person. She'd always been sensible before, or she’d at least learned to be after Jimmy Stone, and it was incredibly confusing as to why she couldn't be so about the Doctor. But as she walked to Mickey’s flat, to get back to her own life, she couldn’t help feeling that something was missing. That she’d made a mistake.

So of course, she kept looking. A few minutes on the internet lead her somewhere promising. But she couldn’t contact Clive until she got home. Mickey didn’t need to know. At least, not for now.

When she unlocked the door to the flat after giving Mickey a kiss goodbye, it was empty. Her mum was out of the house. Perfect--one less person to bug her about this. Using their banged up old computer would take forever.

As she waited for the thing to boot up, she tried to draft the email. And found herself stuck. How did you email a stranger about someone who was more of a conspiracy theory than a man? True, this Clive person knew about the Doctor too, but there was literally no way for Rose to write her email in a way that kept her from sounding like a nutter. Every rule she’d ever been taught about strangers was clamoring in her brain. And would Clive even know anything? Even when Rose wasn't directly asking anything, the Doctor was very evasive.

“Shekinah,” she said, using the only resource she had left, “how do I write emails to strangers?”

Shekinah gave a low growl. That surprised her. “What was that for?” she asked, looking over her shoulder in confusion.

“I’m not going to help you with this,” he said, sounding cross. He clambered to his feet and started pacing restlessly about the room.

“Why not? ” she asked, irritation rising quickly. She’d had quite enough of people behaving oddly and her questioning them for explanations.

“This is dangerous! And silly!” His amber eyes were narrowed in a glare. "What's the point of chasing him?"

"I want answers," she said, looking back at the screen. Why couldn't it load faster?

"I know that," he replied. "I'm your daemon! But what kind of answers are you going to get from this? If he's not talking to you, what makes you think you could find out from anyone else? He already said no one else knew."

"It's not like I'm going to his house or anything," Rose protested. "That's what the email's for." She opened her browser, typing in her email address. "We'll ask him what he knows and see if it's worthwhile."

"We?" Shekinah echoed. "I just said--I'm not helping. You got better things to focus on."

"Like what?" she asked, bitter. "It's not like I got a job anymore."

"That's what you should be focused on--getting a job!"

"You're not my mother!" Rose snapped, turning around to face him. "What's wrong with you? You've never been so opposed to me before."

"That's because you haven't chased after nutjobs before!" Shekinah cried.

"Oh, don't start," Rose huffed, crossing her arms. "You're the one who believed the whole living plastic thing first."

"And you didn't?" he argued, incredulous. "And I was right, anyway. It tried to kill you!"

She didn't have an answer for him. And he kept going, less accusatory,  but still upset. "I know you think something's up, and you need some way to talk about it, but just think about it. If you keep chasing him, you'll run into that stuff more often. He's right, y'know? You only got attacked because you were with him, and if you try to stay with him, it'll keep happening." He looked so scared. "I just want you to be safe, and if we go after this Doctor person, I don't think I'll be able to protect you."

Rose looked back at her screen and sighed. It was easier to argue when he was angry. "I don't think I'll ever meet him again, Shekinah," she said. "I mean, he literally disappeared after saying goodbye."

"You want to find him, though," he pointed out. He wasn't even upset, he was just stating a fact. "You want to meet him again. Because he's more exciting than what we got now. Because he's not scared of me."

And wasn't that situation a new one. "It's not a repeat of Jimmy," she said. If she got that out there, maybe he'd stop worrying. "For one thing, you're not convincing me into it."

Shekinah’s tail twitched between his legs. Underneath his thick fur, he was blushing. "We fancied him," he grumbled. "So we were both blind. But we don't fancy the Doctor. And we're not gonna plow headfirst into another train wreck when we have no reason to."

She blushed at the implications. "He's a bit old," she said, squirming in her seat.

Shekinah rolled his eyes. "Rose, that wasn't helpful. Really didn’t need to think that."

Rose shook her head to try and get her mind back on track. "I'm still gonna contact Clive," she said.

Shekinah sat down on the floor. "I'm not going to stop you," he said. "Just as long as you know the risks."

She clicked on the compose button. "I wouldn't be able to do this if we weren't in agreement. Now, which way do you think is better...?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, Merry Christmas, and thank you to those who've read and left kudos. You don't know how happy it makes me.
> 
> Second, although I've been putting up chapters daily, that update schedule isn't sustainable. Once I've gotten all the chapters of the first episode up, I'll update weekly, on Mondays.
> 
> Third, I just realized that I posted a chapter about beginnings when an era of the show is about to come to an end. That's rather ironic.
> 
> Again, Happy Holidays. My condolences to those who will be mourning Eleven's regeneration (pretty much everyone including me). Hopefully, Twelve will be equally cool (and maybe more profane).


	3. False Start

Rose walked out of Clive's house, with exactly as much knowledge as when she'd walked in. All that effort, talking to Clive, arranging a meeting, convincing Mickey to drive her, and she ended up with nothing. If this was what her best chance got her, she wasn't even going to try with the others.

"You were right," she said, not quite able to look at Shekinah. "It was useless. This guy's a nutter too."

"It's alright, Rose," he said, nuzzling her leg gently. "It's okay. You did the best you could, and we'll just move on."

Rose smiled sadly. "Yeah, I should. But still...I feel like we did after Jimmy--"

Shekinah moved as if he was going to nip her. "Don't!" he said, sharply. "Snap out of it. You shouldn't think like that. Worry about moving on. You've picked yourself up before."

As they entered the car, Shekinah suddenly tensed up. "Something's wrong. Something smells strange."

"Why? What is it?" Rose asked. "It's just Mickey and Lorelei." She turned to her boyfriend, who was looking out the windshield. "So, you were right. He's a nutter. Complete conspiracy freak." They started driving for the pizzeria, Mickey driving spectacularly badly. Shekinah would not calm down, acting jittery in the back seat. "Mickey, what's wrong with you?" Rose asked. "You're making us nervous. Don't you know how to drive?" She turned back to her daemon. "You alright?"

"Sorry," he said, looking sheepish. "I just feel like something's wrong."

"S-something's wrong?" Mickey asked. "Wrong."

"Only thing wrong is that this guy forgot how to use a car," she joked. "And stop grinning. You're acting really weird, Mickey," she realized. Lorelei wasn't even reacting to Shekinah’s discomfort.

Shekinah finally stopped twitching, but only because he'd frozen in horror. "Rose, they're plastic," he said, voice hoarse.

Mickey--plastic Mickey stopped the car. His grin didn't change, but it looked very malicious. "Took you long enough," he said. The plastic Lorelei slipped back, crawling onto Shekinah. He yelped in surprise, starting to tremble.

A horrible dread and revulsion took hold of Rose. "Stop! Stop it!" She felt like vomiting, but managed to force the words out. "I'll do what you want!"

The false daemon stopped touching Shekinah. He whined in distress. "Rose! Don't!"

"Shut up, you stupid dog!" the plastic Mickey cried. "I could make it hurt worse!" That silenced both of them. "Now," he said, calmly, "shall we head to the pizzeria?"

"Why?" Rose asked, before clapping her hand to her mouth.

The violent reaction she expected didn't come. "Because you asked me to, right, Rose?" he said instead, saccharinely. "You and me, off to the pizzeria after you spoke to the wrong man."

 

\---------

It was honestly ridiculous, how no one really reacted to the plastic Mickey. Even if they stared a bit or asked questions, he passed it off as a skin condition. After which everyone was too polite to intrude.

They sat down at the table together, Rose tight-lipped and white-nuckled. Her daemon was right next to her, warm and alive and safe, but plastic Mickey's false daemon was watching closely. She dared not reach toward him.Shekinah, in quiet rebellion, slumped under the table in some sort of a sulk, ignoring the plastic lizard's fake affection. When their captors couldn't see, he nudged Rose's foot gently. She gratefully took his meager comfort.

The plastic Mickey picked up a menu, pretending to browse. "What do you think we should get?" he asked, keeping up the act.

Rose crossed her arms. "What do you want?" she asked, voice flat.

"Hm. Bit direct." He shrugged. "If you really want to know, all I want is information."

"Information?"

"On the Doctor. That's all."

"I don't believe you," she said, looking directly at the doppelgangers. "He said you wanted to take over."

Neither one reacted. Well, it was a fake daemon. It was stupid to assume it'd react in any helpful way. "What does the Doctor know of us?" plastic Mickey scoffed. "He's wrong."

Shekinah's ears pricked up at that. "Oh?" Rose said.

"We're refugees," he said. "What we're doing is more than invasion. It's perfectly legal."

"Whatever it is, I want out." She fought to keep her voice level. "I think it's dangerous, and I'm not getting involved with either you or the Doctor."

"Your champagne," Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw a waiter offer a bottle to the plastic Mickey. She smothered a noise of aggravation. Shekinah twitched. Even someone this close didn't notice the plastic and save them.

"We didn't order any," plastic Mickey replied, not even looking up. "Where's the Doctor? I need to know how much you know."

The waiter went to her next. "Madam? Your champagne."

She waved the bottle away. "It's not ours," she said. If he stayed around, he'd hear too much and get sucked into the mess as well. "Like I said, I don't want to get involved."

"It's a bit late for that now," plastic Mickey said. "And even if you don't want to be involved, I'm certain the Doctor will. I think I'll keep you. He has a weakness for people he thinks are kidnapped."

The pesky waiter was back again. "Doesn't anybody want this champagne?"

"Look, we didn't order it," plastic Mickey snapped, just as Shekinah hissed under his breath, "It's him."

But it couldn't be. The Doctor had disappeared into that blue box. Still, she looked up and there he was, grinning madly, Eliyre besides him.

"Got you," the plastic Mickey said, smiling maliciously.

The Doctor ignored him, shaking the bottle vigorously. As he distracted the plastic Mickey with some speech about toasts, Eliyre swatted the false daemon away, letting Shekinah go free. "Get out," she hissed, pinning the plastic lizard before she reached down and swiftly beheaded it.

Just then, the cork launched itself off the bottle, straight into plastic Mickey's forehead. Rose leapt from her chair in shock. When he spit the cork out onto the table, she backed further away.

"Anyway," he said, standing. Shekinah ran forward and snarled, Eliyre standing stoically beside him. The plastic Mickey paused expectantly, but nothing happened. "Damn. Killed her, didn't you? 'S alright." His hand turned into a nasty looking chopper. "I don't need her."

The restaurant exploded into pandemonium. Plastic Mickey lauched himself toward Rose, only to strike the table. Glass went flying and people started screaming. Without a word, the Doctor grabbed the rampaging mannequin by the head and pulled.

When the now-headless mannequin still didn't stop, Rose ran for the wall. A bright red fire alarm switch hung a few meters away. She pulled it down and the alarms blared to life. "Out! Everyone out now!" she screamed over the cacophony. "Get out! Get out!"

As people fled, the four of them escaped out the back door. They ran out into the back alley, hemmed in by bricks and a metal gate. The box from earlier stood in to the left. Rose and Shekinah went straight to the gate. It was padlocked.

"Open the gate!" Rose cried. "Use your tube thingy!"

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor replied absently, as he locked the doors with the screwdriver.

"Yeah, use it!" Shekinah paced, glancing warily at the door.

"Nah. Let's go in here," the Doctor said, moving towards the blue box.

"We can’t hide there! It'll get us!" Rose yelped. Just because he was right about the plastic people didn’t mean he wasn't a nutter. The plastic Mickey was banging on the door behind them, making it bend from his blows. If that man thought a wooden box could keep them safe, well, she'd take her chances elsewhere.

Eliyre pawed the ground impatiently. "You heard him, get in!" she ordered. "The door will break any minute now."

Shekinah's fur stood on end. "Stop talking to her," he growled.

The panther sighed. "Stupid cub. I don't have time to care about your propriety." With that, she ran over and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, lifting him effortlessly. Rose squeaked in surprise, feeling the back of her neck tighten. Shekinah froze in shock, letting Eliyre drag him into the box.

Rose had no choice but to follow, not that she didn't protest. "Let him go!" she demanded. "What're you-!"

Then she saw the inside. What should've been a box was a towering room with organic-looking bronze columns and hexagon studded walls that curved into a dome. A large column, this one made of glass, stood in the center, surrounded by a complicated, six-sided console. Instead of wood, her feet stood on a metal, grilled ramp leading to that console. The Doctor was there, hands reaching for switches while his eyes were fixed in a screen.

There might've been a door that lead elsewhere, but Rose had quite enough to deal with right here, thank you very much.

Eliyre gently set Shekinah down. The tightness stopped. At least they could breathe a little easier. That helped. Shekinah shook himself vigorously before padding over to Rose, staring at the walls like they were going to fall on top of them all.

"You're welcome," Eliyre said.

"It's gonna follow us," Rose said. It'd be better to focus on something she knew about. Instead of staring at the headache-inducing room and trying to tie it to the box she'd walked into, she looked at the head. The empty eyed, plastic head. It'd spoken earlier, even when decapitated. Was it leering at her now, just waiting to hurt her again?

"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," the Doctor reassured her, "and believe me, they tried."

She didn't doubt it, not when he was the only one who knew what was going on. He placed the head on a portion of the console, plugging wires and bits in. He said something about parts and tracking, but all Rose did was stare, the words chattering on in the background. When the head all wired up, he headed back to the first side of the console, hands poised on the controls. It was then that looked up at her noticed her confusion, then walked over. "Right. Where do you want to start?"

"The inside's bigger than the outside," she said, staring at him.

"Yeah," he said, as if he was commenting on the weather.

"It's alien." Just like the plastic people.

"Yeah."

"Are you alien?"

"Yes." Shekinah crept closer to her, both drawing needed comfort from their proximity. "Is that alright?"

Rose carded a hand through her daemon's fur. "Yeah."

"This thing here is the TARDIS," the Doctor said, sweeping his arm around the room. "T. A. R. D. I. S. Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

Aliens. Aliens were real. But he looked so human, so normal. Even had a daemon, though it was somewhat threatening. So Clive wasn't as big of a nutter as he'd seemed. How much else of what he'd said was true?

_"His constant companion is death."_

She looked back to the console, at Mickey's head. It wasn't moving. And Lorelei...her head had been ripped off, but where was the body? After the Doctor and Eliyre beheaded them, the table had tipped and people had run everywhere. It would've been very easy to miss that little puff of golden smoke. Or had they both been killed, long before?

As she watched the head, it started to melt. Now he would vanish too. Rose burst into tears. Shekinah pressed up against her, murmuring comforting nonsense.

Eliyre recoiled from her outburst, staring at her with widened eyes. The Doctor was a bit more sympathetic. "It's alright," he said. "Bit of culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

"Did they kill him? Mickey?" Rose blubbered. She tried to stop crying, if only so she could find out. "Did they kill him?"

He paused and thought a moment. That alone made a sob force its way out. "Oh. Didn't think of that," he finally answered.

This was just unbelievable. Another man had died from this, and he hadn't even stopped to think--"He's my boyfriend," she snapped. "You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?"

"Melt?" Both the Doctor and Eliyre stared at the console. "Ahh! No, no, no, no, no!"

Both ran about the console flipping switches and pressing buttons. The glass column in the center shuddered to life, the tubes inside rising and falling like a breathing chest. Beneath their feet, the floor shook a bit.

"Doctor, the coordinates! Quickly!" Eliyre cried, trying to turn a dial with her paws.

"What are you doing?" Shekinah asked, jolted off balance.

"Following the signal," the Doctor replied, staring at the console as if he could will it to work. "It's fading! No, no, no! Almost there, c'mon, almost there!" Finally, the rumbling stopped and he sprung to his feet, bolting for the door. "Here we go!"

Was he honestly going to run outside when the mannequin was still there? Unless he was going to trick it into breaking the fence open, he'd get killed too. Rose and Shekinah both ran after them. "You can't go, it's not safe," Rose cried.

Halfway across the threshold, Shekinah stopped short. "Water," he murmured. "We're by the Thames!"

Outside, the back alley had been replaced by sidewalks and tourist attractions. How was that possible? Rose scrambled out of the box, shutting the door behind her. "We've moved," she said, dumbly. The box had gotten even more impossible. "Does it fly?"

The Doctor didn't even look at her, still preoccupied with the lost signal. "Disappears there and reappears here," he replied offhandedly. "You wouldn't understand."

Shekinah paced about, as if testing to make sure everything was real. Still not quite assured herself, Rose asked, "The headless thing--is it still out there?" God knows how many people it'd kill trying to track them down.

"Melted," Eliyre hissed, lashing her tail. Her nostrils flared, searching in vain for a scent. "Just like everything else. Argh! If I'd brought the lizard as well, maybe we'd have tracked it down."

Shekinah froze, fur bristling. "Her name was Lorelei," he growled.

Eliyre raised her head. "Pardon?"

"That 'lizard' had a name. And so did the boy." His eyes narrowed to slits. "Lorelei and Mickey. But you don't even care, do you? Fine. I don't even know if you're capable of caring. But don't you dare talk to my person when you and your alien have killed off our lovers!"

"It's hardly our fault," Eliyre protested. "The Nestene Consciousness was the one who kidnapped him."

"Yeah, and it wouldn't have gone after him if you didn't barge into our lives!"

"Shut up!" the Doctor cried. The two daemons backed off, though Shekinah was ready to explode. "Can't think straight with all this yammering. How d'you think I'm gonna solve this if you won't let me think?"

"You forgot about him," Rose said, not nearly ready to let him go. "He died, and you didn't even bother to know who he was. You’re right. You are alien. Do you really not care about us at all?"

"Look," he said, starting to get frazzled, "if I didn't care, I could swan off this planet just like I did at your flat. Instead, I'm here, trying to save the lives of every dumb ape on Earth. Alright?"

Shekinah snorted, turning away. "I'm serious!" the Doctor added.

"If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" Rose asked.

He sounded almost offended when he replied, "Lots of planets have a North." Did that mean some didn't?

She looked at the box again. "What's a police public call box?" It really didn't look like alien technology from here. She could almost forget the strange room that existed inside. But if it was supposed to be a disguise, he really could've picked better.

"Telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise," he confirmed, placing a loving hand on it.

The two daemons had stopped staring at each other, although Shekinah was far from relaxed. That was fine. They could at least address the matter at hand. "So, the plastic. What's it got against us?"

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

Rose fought down the disbelieving cry of "It's gonna eat us?" and instead asked, "How do we stop it?"

"Anti-plastic," the Doctor replied. He reached in his jacket pocket and produced a tube of neon blue liquid.

"Anti-plastic?" Probably alien science stuff. She'd never heard of it.

"Anti-plastic," he said, nodding. He slipped the vial back in. "But first, we need to find it. How do you hide something so big in a city so small?"

London was hardly small, but god knew how large space cities were. Millions and millions of people living together in glass towers under a starlit sky--Rose shook off the reverie. "Hide what?"

"The transmitter!" He turned around, scanning the buildings. "The Nestene Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?"

"Like a transmitter," he said. Of course, he never could be helpful for long. "Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London."

That sounded familiar. Rose and Shekinah looked at the far bank, then at each other. The iconic Ferris wheel was right there. And it matched the description perfectly.

Eliyre started pacing too. "It has to be nearby. We followed the signal for a long time."

"Yes, but where could they hide it?" the Doctor repeated. "I mean, it must be practically invisible if nobody noticed. It's a huge, circular, radial dish. Somebody'd notice a huge wheel appearing."

Rose and her daemon exchanged glances again. Surely, the Doctor would at least know about the Eye of all things. "You tell him, or should I?" Rose murmured.

The Doctor looked at her. "What? Tell me what?"

The two just stared at the Eye. Finally, the Doctor turned around. And missed it completely. "What're you looking at?"

Eliyre got it first. "The Ferris wheel! Why didn't we think of that?"

"Oh." He grinned wide, and Rose's mouth twitched at the corners. "Fantastic!"

When he took her hand in his, she didn't let go. She would not let him leave her behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should kill past me for deciding to use time related puns and phrases for chapter titles. It's not really working.
> 
> Not much to say about this chapter. I probably should be updating The Lindworm instead, but it's late, and this chapter was done first, so here we are.
> 
> Tomorrow will be the end of "Rose" and then Monday will start "The End of the World".


	4. About Time

They found the entrance through a manhole. Below, lay a concrete chamber with chains and red lighting. Eliyre jumped straight down, landing effortlessly as cats did. Shekinah had to awkwardly maneuver his way on the ladder.

"What on Earth do the maintenance workers' daemons do?" he complained, once his paws were on solid ground again. "Eugh! Bet that's why they've got mice and other portable ones."

"Shh!" Eliyre hissed.

"I thought we weren't sneaking in," Shekinah said. "You practically rang the doorbell after you entered."

"Yes," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean you need to make a racket."

They proceeded down a stairway, Shekinah looking nervously at the metal grille.

"There," the Doctor said, pointing toward the center of the room. Rose leaned over to get a better look. A pit of...something molten looking dominated the floor below. "The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."

"Well, tip in your anti-plastic and go, then," she said, feeling oddly sad. It'd been a very exciting day.

"I'm not gonna kill it," the Doctor replied. "I've got to give it a chance."

Even when it'd killed people and kidnapped and tortured her? Shekinah looked like he was about to protest, but something else caught his attention. "Rose. There's someone else here."

"What?" She looked further down the stairway to see, "Mickey!" Oh, he was still alive!

She and Shekinah ran down the steps to where Mickey lay, huddled in a corner by the railing. "Oh my god, you're alright!" She scooped him into her arms, his skin warm and alive and human.

"Rose. That thing down there, that liquid...it can talk!" Mickey cried, eyes wide with shock. Lorelei buried herself in Shekinah's fur. Shekinah flinched back, and Rose could see that mocking plastic grin again.

Mickey's eyes locked on her. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Rose ignored him, turning to the Doctor. "You're stinking," she said, trying to only sound angry. "They kept him alive."

"Always a possibility," he answered, dismissive. "They'd likely need him to maintain the copy."

Shekinah’s back leg tapped nervously on the floor. Mickey's eyes widened in pained realization. "Oh my god, did it--" Rose looked away. He grabbed her with firm hands, turning her toward him. "Listen, whatever it did, that was not me, okay?" he said, sounding desperate. "That thing had a mind of its own."

Rose brushed his hands off. "I know," she said. "Really, it's okay. I believe you. You and Lorelei would never do that."

The Doctor let out a huff of frustration. "Can we keep the domestics outside? I'm trying to save the world here." Both were shocked into silence, and he took it as agreement. "Thank you."

He turned back to the thing in the vat. "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation," he said. Below, the molten mass bubbled in response, a proto-face appearing on its surface. "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?"

Mickey turned to her. "Oh my god. So he's real?"

She nodded, staring at the thing in the vat. It flexed and shifted, emitting strange noises. She had no idea what it was saying, but the Doctor was not impressed. "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple." That set the Nestene Consciousness off again. "Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking!" 

The Nestene Consciousness finally quieted. When the Doctor continued, his voice was gentler and heartfelt. "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more." Did he know that? Had he seen it himself? For a moment, Rose allowed herself to dream of a future. "I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."

Suddenly, Shekinah tensed beside her. "They're back," he growled.

Rose whirled around. Four mannequins lurched out of the shadows, toward the Doctor and Eliyre. "Doctor!" she cried, just as Eliyre yowled a warning of her own.

She and Mickey tried to shrink into the corner. And while she was relieved that they ignored her, that also meant they attacked the Doctor instead. Two of them grabbed him by the arms, while the other two tried to separate him from Eliyre. As they reached for her, she batted them away, shouting, "Don't touch me!" Shekinah quivered with barely held back fear and fury, staying by Rose, but staring intently as Eliyre was slowly backed into a corner.

"Doctor, use it now!" she cried, just as a mannequin swiped the vial from his jacket pocket.

The room was all but shaking from the force of the alien’s roars. The Doctor was frantically trying to placate the creature, but Rose felt that horrible sinking feeling that she’d only felt a few days before.

And then the mannequins brought out the TARDIS. That made her flinch in surprise. How had they gotten their hands on the ship?

"No," the Doctor said, going a little limp. Whether he was reacting to his ship's capture or the Nestene's accusations wasn't clear. "Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship." Eliyre faltered in her battle, barely managing to avoid a lethal strike. "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" He was close to tears, and Eliyre couldn't dodge the next blow. He let out a cry of pain.

"Stop! Stop!" she cried, just as the mannequins reached for her again. "Let me go. I won't do anything!" She rolled onto her back, like a massive kitten, exposing her belly. Seeing her capitulate so thoroughly made Rose sick. "I'll stop, just don't hurt him, please!"

Shekinah was all but clawing the ground in rage at her defeat. "We have to stop them," he hissed.

"Doctor!" Rose cried, having no one else to turn to. "What's going on?"

"It's the Tardis!" the Doctor replied, desperately. "The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!"

It was happening. Every plastic object in the world was now out to kill them. Not just shop dummies, but eyeglasses, garbage bins, everything. Shekinah was up on his feet, ready for anything that would come their way. Here, with the concrete and metal, they'd be sort of safe, so long as they could avoid the mannequins. But where could they hide after? What about her friends, her family--

She pulled out her cell phone again, jamming her thumb against that one button. The dial tone droned against her ear once, twice, three times--what was taking Mum so long? She was always glued to her phone.

When she finally answered, Rose thought for one awful second that it had gone to voicemail. But no, it was her. "Mum?" Rose cried.

"Oh, there you are," she said, as if the world wasn't ending. "I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me."

She had never been so relieved and irritated to hear her mother's voice. Yes, Mum was alive, but Rose really couldn't care less about the compensation. "Where are you?"

"I'm in town.”

No, no, no, she couldn’t. She couldn’t go. She’d head to the shops for sure, and there wouldn’t be anyone there for her. “No, go home! Just go home right now!"

A loud crackling sound flooded the line as the room began to buzz with energy. "Darling, you're breaking up," her mum said, before she did as well. "Listen--going to--night shopping--you later--ta!"

"Mum!" Rose cried. This time there was no answer.

The buzzing in the room grew to an unbearable pitch, amplified by Shekinah’s discomfort. He whined and squirmed, collapsing on the ground and clawing at his ears. The buzz filled Rose's head, disrupting her already eratic thoughts.

"It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!"

"It's the end of the world," she whispered, in hoarse horror.

The Doctor started struggling again, not to escape, but to speak to Rose. "Get out!" he cried. "Just leg it, Rose!"

She felt herself get yanked to her feet. "You heard him," Shekinah said, voice rough and labored. "Let's go."

Mickey got up with her, still wide-eyed with panic. Rose looked up the stairs. Two more mannequins emerged to block the way. "The stairs are gone," she cried. She tried to look for another way out.

The TARDIS. They could hide in there. She, Mickey, and their daemons ran toward the blue box. But the door refused to open.

"We're gonna die!" Mickey wailed.

Meanwhile, the mannequins began to push the Doctor toward the vat. He'd been on the edge already, but now his feet were starting to slip. "No!" he cried, trying to wrestle his way free. Eliyre rolled onto her feet again, yowling and hissing in defiance. But she was still cornered.

Rose could take it no longer. Even if she was trapped right next to a murderous alien, she was not going to let anyone else die today. Along the wall, she spied a heavy chain. A crazy plan crystallized in her mind. She ran.

"Rose!" Shekinah cried, starting to run after her.

"Leave him!" Mickey begged. "There's nothing you can do!"

"I've got no job. No A-Levels. No future," she said, grabbing an axe and chopping the chain free. She grabbed on tightly, metal scraping at her hands. The molten vat loomed ahead. She'd have one chance.

Shekinah watched her with disbelieving eyes. "No," he gaped.

"But I tell you what I have got," Rose ground out. "Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!"

She jumped.

Heat from the vat swirled around her, but she whizzed through too quickly to feel anything. Her hair was blown clear from her face. For one second, she could see the mannequins. Then there was a bump as she made contact.

The two plastic men tumbled into the vat, taking the vial of anti-plastic with them.

Immediately afterward, Eliyre tossed the mannnequins pinning her. The Nestene Consciousness turned blue, convulsing in pain. Shekinah bolted to her side, incessantly calling her name. The buzzing cut off abruptly, small explosions lighting the room like fireworks.

She felt strong hands lift her off the chain and back to firm footing. The Doctor was grinning again, wide and crazed and infectious. "Now we're in trouble," he said, before running for the TARDIS.

With grinding motors, they left the place behind. 

\--------

The doors opened to the Embankment, a quiet, sheltered place. Mickey, who'd been practically catatonic after stepping in the ship, staggered out like a drunk man. Rose followed, still riding the buzz of the near disaster below.

"Don't ever do that again," Shekinah lectured, his stern tone undermined by his wolfish smile.

"I don't plan on it," she replied, distractedly. She hadn't swung on a rope in ages. Who knew she'd missed it so much? She was still dazed when her mum called, freaking out about armed mannequins and warning her to stay home. She hung up with a sigh. Her mum didn't even know the half of it.

She looked up at the Doctor, who was leaning nonchalantly in the TARDIS doorway. "A fat lot of good you were," she said, grinning.

"Indeed," Eliyre added, padding back to the TARDIS after checking the perimeter. She nuzzled the Doctor, receiving a gentle stroke in return. "Always getting yourself in danger. What am I ever going to do about you?"

"I was fine," the Doctor insisted. "Nestene Consciousness. Easy."

"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." She'd saved his life. Rose Tyler had gone and saved somebody's life. For once, she'd done well.

His smug smile softened. "Yes, I would. Thank you."

They stood there smiling at each other for a moment more before the Doctor cleared his throat. "Right then, I'll be off," he said, sobering. "Unless, er, I don't know, you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

She stopped and stared, reading the message hidden in the invitation. Run away with me. He must have been so lonely, away from home. He wasn't even on the same planet. While she had rarely even left her half of the city. She could see his planet. She could see all sorts of planets, outside the solar system. He wanted her to stay with him.

Shekinah gave her a long meaningful look. This wasn't the first time she'd run away. 

Mickey knew too. "Don't," he said, glaring at the man, staring at Eliyre. "He's an alien. He's a thing."

"He's not invited," the Doctor added, not missing a beat. "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere."

And she knew. She wasn't going to run away with another Jimmy Stone.

Jimmy Stone was nothing compared to this.

"Is it always this dangerous?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied.

Every night would be like this. Breathless running and near-death scenarios. She wanted that, more than she wanted to escape. Enough that she almost said yes.

But she'd saved more people than just the Doctor. She felt Mickey’s hand clamped tightly around hers, palm hot and sweaty. Lorelei stared at her with pleading, panicked eyes. She shook her head slightly. How could she think of not going where she was needed?

"Yeah, I can't," she said. "I've, er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so."

The Doctor's smile faltered for a moment. Eliyre blinked slowly, not entirely sure how to react. "Okay," he replied, not quite meeting her eyes. "See you around." 

"Take care," Shekinah added, dipping his head briefly.

"We will," Eliyre promised.

With a wave, he closed the door. She watched as the box faded, light flashing and motor grinding. The only sign left behind was the leaves flying on the sudden wind.

"Come on," Shekinah said, nudging her gently. "You did the right thing."

"That's how it works, innit?" she sighed. "That's the moral of the grand adventure. There's no place like home." Turning her back on the box and the impossible man, she tugged Mickey along. "Well, come on then. Let's go home." It was time to chase after something else.

They'd barely walked a step before she heard the scraping sound again. They all turned around to see the box appear bit by bit, as if their little moment was rewinding.

The door opened. And there he stood. "By the way," he said, "did I mention that it travels in time?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now our duo (well, quartet) is off to see the universe. The plot will finally start to pick up. I'm sorry if it's been slow, but Rose had to meet the Doctor.
> 
> Reminder: updates will now be on Mondays.


	5. Time Enough

It would be more accurate to say that she skipped through the TARDIS doors. Shekinah certainly had, all coils of excited energy, trying to take in everything he could about the console room. They were going time traveling!

"Right then, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, rubbing his hands eagerly together. "You tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

"Forwards," she said.

"How far?" he asked.

"One hundred years," she decided.

With a nod, he and Eliyre turned to the console. The central column shuddered to life for a few seconds before falling still again.

"There you go." the Doctor said, with a flourish. "Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century."

"You're kidding," Rose scoffed, looking at his face. Sure, traveling to the Thames was fast, but traveling a century into the future had to take longer than this.

"That's a bit boring, though," he remarked, with a tilt of the head. "Do you want to go further?"

God, his smile was infectious. "Fine by me."

Back to the controls they went. In no time at all, the motor stopped again.

"Ten thousand years in the future," he proclaimed. "Step outside, it's the year 12005, the new Roman Empire."

"You think you're so impressive," Rose said.

Eliyre burst out laughing. "I am so impressive," the Doctor protested. Rose and Shekinah just kept smiling.

"He does, doesn't he?" Eliyre said, shaking her head. "You must applaud the effort."

"Right then, you asked for it," he said, turning away. "I know exactly where to go. Hold on!"

The take off was a bit more jerky this time, Eliyre yelling something in another language as she lunged for the console. "Don't pilot it without me," she scolded as they pulled to a stop.

"I do most of it anyway," the Doctor retorted, heading for the door. Eliyre muttered something about opposable thumbs.

"That is not my fault," he argued, offended.

"Actually," Shekinah said, "it sort of is. If your personality was different, she could be able to drive better."

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, giving him this long-suffering look. "I've got two of 'em now, don't I? And they both have good hearing." He took Rose by the hand and led her quickly out the door. "C'mon, the quadrupeds are ruining the fun."

Outside was a grand-looking marble hall. It looked like a museum. "Where are we?" Rose asked. He'd said nothing about where they were going. Only that it was in the future.

Eliyre walked out with Shekinah, both surveying the area. "Ah!" she exclaimed. "Good idea." She looked at Shekinah and Rose. "You'll love this."

They all walked down a set of steps. Suddenly, the wall in front of them clicked and a hidden panel slowly slid up, revealing a large window. Behind that window was a night sky unlike anything she'd ever seen.

There were no stars in the endless field of space. Instead, the Earth stood before her, steadily turning. Beyond it, the sun winked along the curve of the planet, bigger and brighter than she'd ever imagined. She let out a small gasp, tempted to reach out and touch the glass. It was vibrant and colorful and nothing like what was on television. Because it was there, actually there. Stretching out into eternity.

"It's beautiful," Shekinah breathed.

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying," the Doctor mused, considering the Earth below. "Like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids." He turned toward Rose, smiling. So that was why he always seemed so happy. This was truly beautiful. "But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive.”

“This is the year 5.5/apple/26. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day--hold on," he added, checking his watch.  _Did it change time with him?_   Rose wondered.

The sun let loose a sparkling burst of fire, an arc of light flashing out from behind the Earth.

"This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."

"What?" Rose and Shekinah gasped in unison.

"You heard him," Eliyre said, looking amused. "The sun's run out of fuel. You think it's big and mighty now? Just wait and see when it goes red giant."

Rose stared at the Earth again. Right there, circling past, were the British Isles. Her home. And it would be gone. Or not, come to think of it. "And we're here to save it?"

He shook his head. "Not this time. Let's go," the Doctor said, waving at a corridor. "The satellite's pretty big. Plenty more to see. You got an entire day to go Earth watching; it's not going to die just yet."

\--------

As it turned out, there _was_ plenty more to see on the satellite. Or rather, observation deck. It was a massive theatre for aliens--real, flesh and blood aliens, to watch the Earth die. The satellite certainly wasn't built for humans, not with corridors too small to comfortably fit two people and their daemons side by side. But even after the Nestene Consciousness the day before, she wasn't quite sure what they'd encounter here. Actually, had it even been a day? Technically, it had been five billion years, enough time for London to crumble to dust along with the Earth. But for her, it probably was less than an hour.

Clearly, she wasn't the kind of person who traveled often. Although she didn't think that dealing with time zones was as confusing as this. And it was definitely true that nobody on Earth had to deal with meeting aliens on their territory. She still half-suspected that the alien they'd stumbled upon was wearing colored contacts and body paint. Surely, if the Doctor and Eliyre hadn't faked an invitation with the psychic paper, her staring and Shekinah’s incessant sniffing would've blown their cover. Perhaps that was why they were the "plus two".

As the host announced the arrival of the actual guests, Rose realized she had absolutely no idea what to do. The event reeked of pomp and ceremony. It wasn’t that she lacked manners--her mum had been rather firm about instructing her in that field, especially considering their status and her unusual daemon. But nowhere had she been taught how to deal with alien nobility. Or aliens at all.

Eliyre noticed the tentative expression on her face and discreetly positioned herself in front of them. “Let us handle this,” she whispered. So Rose and Shekinah did, doing their best to look appropriately deferential, accepting gifts when they came. Some were strange--like the gift of "bodily salivas" from the Moxx of Balhoom. The cowled Adherents of the Repeated Meme handed out silvery spheres. The metallic scent of the gift and the givers set Shekinah on edge, but they were otherwise unremarkable. Some of the gifts were quite nice, actually, like the metalwork bracelet that the white furry alien gave her. That alien she'd sort of liked, dressed in an array of similarly crafted metal ornaments, arranged like a suit of armor.

"You made these yourself?" she asked, holding her gift, an intricate bracelet, up to the light.

The alien had nodded, replying with one gruff yes.

Even the Doctor had been impressed. "That's very good craftsmanship."

"Only the best," he said (at least, Rose was reasonably sure he was a he). "Ever since we left the Earth long ago, This has been our craft."

When he left, Rose stared. "That's an armored bear?" Now she could see a vague resemblance, in the ears and fur, and the number of legs, but he was nowhere near in size. And those had been fingers, not claws on the end of his hands. 

"What, think humans were the only species who could leave the Earth?" the Doctor asked. "They wanted meteorite metals, so they went to the source, eventually. And of course they look different. It's been many millenia, after all."

As for the rest, she managed to refrain from any outbursts of surprise when the scaled, slimy, squat, and bodiless guests began filing in, restricting herself to only almost inappropriate amounts of staring. Even when the Doctor did the whole “air from my lungs” thing as an improvisational gift. And when Jabe the tree got a little flirty. Had the leaves on her head started leaning toward the Doctor? That would've been quite weird. 

Then Lady Cassandra O’Brien showed up.

“She’s human?” Rose whispered, more out of shock than out of politeness. Really, if you’d accidentally crashed an alien party and the guests were treating the demise of your home planet as entertainment, the bonds of civil behavior could be reasonably loosened.

“I--I don’t even see her daemon,” Shekinah hissed in reply. He sniffed the air deeply, searching for anything familiar. “Where is it?” He recoiled after a moment. “Eugh! She smells more like a cream than a person.”

As if on cue, the lady imperiously ordered her lackeys to moisturize her. Shekinah wrinkled his nose in disgust and slunk behind Rose, not bothering to hide his aversion. Rose could hardly hide her own. The Face of Boe, a giant head in a jar, looked more human than Lady Cassandra. He at least had physical features and body parts.

Rose slipped away from the Doctor’s side, maneuvering her way around to the side of the room. As she walked to the side of the Lady’s steel frame, Lady Cassandra slipped completely out of view. She was a sheet. A two-dimensional mockery of a person.

"I bring gifts from Earth itself," Lady Cassandra proclaimed, after she concluded her melodramatic speech. Everyone oohed in delight and surprise.

"What do you think she's got?" Rose murmured, feeling a little resentful of her interest.

"Don't ask me." Shekinah craned his neck to stare out the door. "It's probably not something we'd even recognize."

A lackey entered the room, holding a large egg in his hands. The animals would’ve been completely different as well, Rose realized. Would that mean the daemons would take new shapes? What about the armored bears?

“Behold,” Lady Cassandra announced. “The last ostrich egg. Legends say it had a wingspan of 50 feet and blew fire from its nostrils.”

Shekinah stared in complete befuddlement. “She has to be kidding. We’ve seen ostriches! In the zoo!”

Rose shushed him. “I know. But we can’t tell them.” She stared at the egg, then back at Lady Cassandra. Her musings were interrupted by the entrance of another lackey. This next gift was enormous, being wheeled into the room. It was--

“Now I have to agree--that’s ancient history,” Rose joked. Still, she didn’t stop staring. A jukebox. Of all the things that would exist billions of years from now, this was a bit random.

“Records state that this was called an ‘iPod’,” Lady Cassandra said. “It stores classical music written by the Earth’s greatest composers."

Rose wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry. She definitely wanted to correct those blatant inaccuracies. But how could she do that? If she told them she was from five billion years ago, they'd laugh, thinking her some insane child. But she wasn't! She was the real thing, not Lady Cassandra. The dying Earth was her home as well.

As the jukebox started playing, she soon recognized the song. "No," Shekinah gasped, ears pricked up like satellite dishes. He and Rose listened dumbly as the familiar tune played over the rising chatter.

"Refreshments will now be served," the steward announced. "Earth death in 30 minutes."

It suddenly occurred to her that she and Shekinah were likely the only two people there who knew the lyrics. Everyone else was dead, after all.

That's when she ran from the room. Nobody noticed her, and she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted.

\---------

It had been so long since he'd had a companion. After the war, he'd drifted (desolate and alone, so alone). That was part of the reason why he'd inevitably come back for her. After the JFK assassination (he'd aimed for a spot a day later and a continent over, but this was the closest he dared to go) he started roaming about Earth, visiting calamities. He started saving people somewhere along the way, but he still didn't do much besides those little acts of charity. Hitting fixed points in time reminded him that some things were better left untouched.

But Rose was a remarkable person. She was loophole to his fixed point, a way to return to better times, traveling with amazing people and exploring the universe together. Because, as he found out, saving the world was much more fun with a companion.

Of course, having traveled alone for so long, he'd gotten rusty at handling humans. For him, this was a normal mixer. The most he'd have to worry about was conversation topics. But Rose was hardly as experienced. When the song came on, she fled the room. The culture shock must've been enormous.

He excused himself from the little group he was in and started to follow her, when Jabe, the very pretty tree, intercepted him.

"Doctor?" she said. That was all the warning he got before a bright flash left him blinking spots out of his physical vision.

"Thank you," she said, holding a device that had either given him the tree equivalent of a snack or taken his picture. (Possibly both.)

"What was that?" he asked Eliyre as they left the room.

"I only know as much as you do," she replied. "What technology do they have this century?"

"Who knows."

"Stop it," she snapped, swatting at his leg. The Doctor laughed as he dodged.

"Seems like I'm the only one with the sense of humor this time," he remarked.

"On the contrary. Yours is more mediocre."

"You're very self-deprecating, aren't you?" he asked.

They walked on in silence after that. The Doctor didn't consider himself good company.

"So," he said, after the silence had stretched a few seconds. "Think I tried too hard there?"

"A bit." Eliyre didn't look at him. "All or nothing is your modus operandi right now. That’s not very good when you’re supposed to be adjusting.”

“To what?” he asked, starting to get irritated. Even if she was looking out for him better than he could, you could only hear the same things so many times.

Before she could answer, they came across the TARDIS. Rose and Shekinah weren’t there, but several of the workers were, carting the TARDIS away.

“Oi, now,” the Doctor cried, running toward them. Nobody messed about with his ship. “Careful with that.”

Eliyre turned toward the hall. “You deal with them. I’ll go to Rose.”

The Doctor went ahead, catching up to the crew members. "What's the deal with my ship?" he demanded. "I parked it in a side gallery--unless you're going to use this later, in which case, I'm sorry and can park it elsewhere--"

One of the workers pulled out a pad, scribbling a few quick notes before tearing the page off and handing him the ticket. "Please go see the Steward, sir," he said, before leaving with the rest of the towing crew.

He stared at the ticket (which also bid him to have a nice day, how polite), wondering if he really should go see the Steward. It was always nice to get a look behind the scenes, and actually dealing with accidental law breaking before the initial incident compounded into immediate arrest the next time he landed would be smart. It was only a parking ticket, but still, the principle held. (You'd be surprised what one could be incarcerated for in certain societies).

But he'd have to deal with all that bureaucracy either way. What use was it to him? Getting the TARDIS again would be no big deal for him. He'd achieved far more (like retrieving it from underwater. Now that had been nasty. Even respiratory bypass didn't help, and Eliyre was furious about getting wet). 

He shrugged, pocketing the ticket and moving on. Maybe he'd try to find the Steward's office along the way, in case. The more he knew in a given situation, the better.

He didn't notice the metal spider crawling along the wall behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, remember what I said about plot? I kind of lied. Exposition got away from me and the sections didn't fit anymore. You'll get plot next chapter, cross my hearts.
> 
> You'd think that if I was writing a Doctor Who fic, I'd have both weird-plot-shit and weird-time-shit, but no. Only got myself to blame, though.
> 
> Anyway, because this'll be the last update of 2013 (which really isn't that huge a deal considering I only started this story a week ago), I wish you all a Happy New Year. Here's to 2014 (and a lot of screwed up dates--3 looks nothing like 4)


	6. Second Nature

In a side room with a good Earth view, Rose lounged on the steps, staring out the window. It was beautiful, alright, but the sun was burning uncomfortably bright and the continents below felt out of place. Her Earth didn't belong in a universe with blue-skinned plumbers. She didn't belong in a universe with aliens.

"How strange," a rumbling female voice said. "You seem like a girl who'd like parties." They turned their heads.

"Eliyre," Shekinah said in surprise.

Rose watched the door expectantly, but no one came. "Er, where's the Doctor?" she asked, vaguely unsettled.

"Dealing with a parking ticket." The panther's face gave away nothing as she sauntered down next to them. "Why are you here?"

"Uh," Rose stammered, still caught off guard by speaking to a daemon. They were alien too, she remembered. She had hitchhiked with an alien, and he was her only ride home.

"Bit much, that room," Shekinah said, coming to her rescue. "It's...very new for us. So many sights, so many scents."

Rose nodded. "You just look at them and they're all so...alien." It hadn't really been as fun as she'd expected.

"We're all aliens," Eliyre said, matter-of-factly. "No one in that room shares a planet. But they're all people."

Rose immediately thought of the Raffalo girl. "Yeah. But it's just weird, seeing them without daemons."

"And me without my person," Eliyre concluded wryly, reclining next to them like a massive house cat. "You'll have to get used to it. There are species on your own planet without daemons. Mind you, the trees of Cheem do have vines and the like. They're more obvious when they're in bloom."

Rose blushed. That Jabe lady certainly had been flowering during the introductions. "Er, well, where are you from?" she finally spluttered out. Best not go down that train of thought.

Eliyre licked a paw. "Everywhere."

Still no answers, it seemed. "You all speak English?" That hadn't been expected, but she was glad for it all the same. Seemed to be a pattern.

"No."

"What?" But then what had she been hearing?

"It's translated," she explained. "By the TARDIS. Telepathic field that gets in your head."

Shekinah’s fur was bristling. "You're getting in our heads?"

"Not me--the TARDIS," Eliyre corrected, completely unconcerned. "It's programmed that way."

Just then, the Doctor walked in. "Ah! Found you," he said, cheerfully.

Rose stood and marched up to him. "You!"

"Me?" he said, gesturing at himself in puzzlement.

"Your machine altered my brain and you didn't even think to tell me?"

"Not used to psychic technology," Eliyre diagnosed. "I'd forgotten how primitive you humans could be."

The Doctor gave her a stern glare. "You never even--"

"I don't care!" Shekinah interrupted, his warning growl cutting through the distracting in-fighting. "You don't screw around with our brains like that! Not without permission! And definitely not when you can mess with both of us."

"You...you have a point," the Doctor admitted, sheepishly. "I never really thought about it that way."

"Who are you anyway?" Rose demanded. "None of you answered me. What kind of alien are you?"

Any sheepishness vanished in that instant. "I'm just the Doctor. And she's Eliyre," he said, in that flat tone of voice that discouraged discussion.

"I know that! What planet are you from?"

"Does it matter? You wouldn't even know."

She was so sick of his question dodging. "If I'm gonna be running off with you to see the universe, don't you think I deserve to know something about you?"

"You can start learning. Now," he snapped, finally losing patience with her. "You don't need to know what I've been to know who I am. What matters is what I am doing here, right now."

They stood there, glaring at each other, their daemons mirroring. An announcement came over the speakers again, breaking the tension in the room.

Rose looked away. Twenty minutes to Earth death. "Alright. Like my mate Shareen says--don't argue with the designated driver." Out of habit, her hand strayed to her pocket, where her mobile was. It still had power, which was reassuring but surprising all the same. So far from home--the clock was screwed up too. She didn't even know the numbers could go that high. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. No signal. We're out of range."

Shekinah snorted quietly. The Doctor walked over to her, unfolding his arms. "Tell you what," he said, taking the mobile from her hands. He undid the back cover, revealing the circuitry and fancy tech stuff inside. Out came the screwdriver. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery--"

"That a technical term?"

"Yes. Came in first for jiggery pokery." The light lit up as the device buzzed. "You?"

"No. Failed hullabaloo."

He swiftly reassembled the mobile, before throwing it back. "Here you go."

It looked precisely the same as before. Only, the clock now had digits she didn't recognize, and there were five bars of signal in the top right corner. Her eyes widened. Slowly, she dialed a number five billion years late.

The phone rang. There was a click as it connected.

"Hello?" her mum said. And then she wasn't alone.

\---------

The Doctor watched Rose as she finished her call with her mum. Her face was an open book, Shekinah even more so. Even for such an ostensibly ordinary conversation, there was disbelief and relief in equal measure, tossed about with some love to boot. That look of confusion and searching was gone.  He smiled softly. Family. They could do that to you.

He stopped looking then, waiting until she hung up. "Think that's amazing?" he quipped. "You should see the phone bill." Of course, the TARDIS had no real concept of money, so all charges were nonexistent. But the joke mattered more. 

"That was five billion years ago," Rose said, giving it time to sink in. "So she's dead now. And...so's everyone."

"Barrel of laughs you are," the Doctor replied, smile not quite so wide anymore.

Before he could worry about gaping emotional wounds, the satellite started shaking, as if it were buffeted by solar wind. If he concentrated, he could almost hear its dull roar.

"That's not supposed to happen," he said, when the satellite stabilized again. The shields were supposed to stop this kind of thing from happening.

"It's not?" Rose asked.

"No. Not at all."

Eliyre peered out the window, as if she could see the defects in the shields. "The sun's reacting normally," she reported. "It may be the shields themselves."

"It sounds different, yeah," Shekinah said, tilting his head. "That...engine noise. Higher pitched. It is an engine, right?"

The intercom broadcast an announcement. "Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you."

"That's completely wrong," Eliyre insisted. "I know a gravity pocket when I see one."

"Something's going on," the Doctor said. "Come on. I have some sleuthing to do." He left the room without looking to see if Rose and Shekinah were following, but they had no reason not to come. No point in checking.

Something must have happened to the engines. He was sure of it. That powered the shields, and the fault in the shields didn't seem to be coming from the outside. The Sun didn't have enough power to generate emissions of that strength, even at red giant stage, and no stars had randomly popped into existence nearby within the last half hour, so it would have to be internal flaws or sabotage causing the malfunctions. He'd have to check the engines and mechanical bits of the satellite to make a more specific diagnosis, but this was a good start.

Now, as for the potential saboteurs...

When they popped back into the central viewing deck, the patrons were all abuzz.

"I may not be as familiar with engines as an engineer," the panserbjorne (what was his name? Graeagle?), "but I know the sound of metal. No device of this quality should be under that much stress."

"Just what I was going to say," the Doctor chimed in. "Motors pitched up thirty hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"I wouldn't know," Jabe said. "It's all the same to me."

"Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife."

Ah. "She's not my wife," the Doctor replied patiently, Eliyre unable to decide whether she wanted to laugh or growl. Honestly, couldn't two individuals of different sexes and similar species (in appearance) travel together without being married?

"Partner?"

He did not like where this was going. "No."

"Concubine?"

Shekinah wheezed, caught somewhere between disbelief and fury. Eliyre, in a moment of self-indulgence, sidled over and whispered, "Show some cultural sensitivity. That's a legitimate relationship in places."

Trees weren't known for sexual restrictiveness and monogamy, not when the majority of their reproductive systems operated in breeding seasons and through pollination (and not necessarily with another individual). But Shekinah didn't get it, only giving Eliyre a sour glare. (Always a problem with human companions from the first two millenia, isolated as they were from the rest of the universe. The Doctor wasn't a prude, but discussing the sexual norms of other species was hardly the kind of thing that he'd do with a companion.)

"Whatever I am, it must be invisible," Rose said, crossly. "You go on. Eliyre'll probably be of more use to you than me."

"I could go too," Graeagle said. "I'd like to get a look at things myself."

"Could get hot in the engine rooms," the Doctor said. "Are you sure?"

"I know my own limits," Graeagle replied. "And my forges are where engines are created. Heat is no issue."

The panserbjorne did have a point, although the Doctor was still rather reluctant to let him come along. "Tell you what," he said. "You can go find the Steward. If there's something going wrong, he'll likely know." 

Graeagle tilted his head. "Why me?"

The Doctor fingered the ticket in his pocket and said, "Ah, well, I think he'll take someone of your rank more seriously."

Graeagle nodded. "I will go. But someone will have to go with me. I cannot operate doors easily."

Eliyre sighed, recalling her own experiences. The Doctor tried to imagine the massive quadruped rearing back on his hind legs in order to press a button. He doubted that the satellite was equipped to recognize nose prints. "Ah, Rose?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't be so annoyed as to rebuff him. "Would you go with him?"

She and Shekinah eyed the panserbjorne, probably wondering whether it actually was a panserbjorne (they hadn't recognized the bear the first time--admittedly, it looked more like a massive canid than an ursine). Finally, Shekinah turned to Graeagle and said, "We might. Give us a moment to think about it."

Graeagle grunted. "I am in no hurry."

"Well, that's settled, then," the Doctor said. Taking Jabe's arm, he gestured to the door. "Lead on."

As they left the room, they heard Rose say, "I want you home by midnight."

Eliyre scoffed. "Clingy, that one," she said.

"Be nice," the Doctor muttered. But Jabe had begun asking him about his time here, so he said nothing more.

\---------

In all honesty, Rose did not want to go. The only person she felt comfortable with was the Doctor, and you could see just how well that worked out. This big, white-furred dog thing just confused her with its or his formal language and expressionless face. He was larger than her and Shekinahby a wide margin. The last thing she wanted to do was wander around the satellite with him. Well, maybe not last. Hanging about in this room hadn't gotten any less uncomfortable since her last attempt, and if she got into a conversation, she'd have no idea what to say. Especially if she got bombarded with questions. Time travel had rules about how much you say--even when it was to the future. 

She tried just standing by the window,staring out at the view. But then all she could think of was how many minutes had passed and how soon the Earth would explode. Not even Shekinah spoke with her.

Even with all that silence, she didn't notice the giant wheeled tank approach her until its occupant spoke. 

_Rose?_

She turned around and stared at the man--well, Face. "How do you know my name?"

 _All in good time_ , he rumbled. _You will learn before I do._

She frowned in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense..."

 _Time travel rarely does_. The Face sighed.

"You got that right," Shekinah muttered.

The Face turned to look at him. _Ah. Your daemon._

Rose blinked and stared. "You know what that is?"

The Face nodded, an odd bobbing motion. _Always wondered whether this was recursive._

"What?"

_It doesn't matter._

She sighed. "Maybe not, but I really just feel lost." Lost enough to vent to a massive head, apparently.  

 _You'll find out during your travels_ , the Face assured her. _Stay with the Doctor. He is a good man._

That definitely got her attention. "You know the Doctor?"

Did the Face just smile? _He is hard to forget. And I am an old friend of sorts_. That was definitely a telepathic chuckle. _A_ very _old friend indeed._

"Could you tell me about him?"

 _Prying?_ the Face chided. _Shame. He is a private person. He will tell you when he is ready. No earlier._

Rose tried not to sound whiny. "Nobody seems to want to tell me anything."

 _All things have their time. Just as with the Earth dying_. A feeling of immense sadness came to her. _I lived there once myself._

"Really?" That would explain his--well, the Face sounded like a man anyway--his knowledge of daemons.

 _Quite a few people in here can trace their lineage back to the continents and oceans outside the window,_ the Face said, somehow gesturing at the room without hands. She'd definitely have to get used to this telepathy thing.  _We've all come to say goodbye. And Hello._

"Hello?"

_To something new. Where did you think planets went when they died?_

"I just thought they didn't." she said, feeling stupid. "You know, die. I mean, it's a planet. It just...is."

 _They die_. He was almost flippant about it. _Almost all things do. But they are made into new things_ , the Face said. _Things end and new things happen in their stead. Just as things will happen to you, Rose._

"Things?" she asked. Shekinah started pacing in agitation. "What things?"

_I've already said too much. But there's one more thing I must say._

"What is it?"

_Bad Wolf. Remember that._

As the Face of Boe wheeled itself away, everyone in the room turned to stare and whisper. All except for one person.

"And who are you, to be special enough for a conversation with the Face of Boe?" Lady Cassandra demanded.

It wouldn't kill her to be polite. "Rose. Rose Tyler."

"That's it? _That's_ it? No titles, no wealth, no prestige?" Even in her frustration, Lady Cassandra's face was mostly expressionless, for of fear of wrinkles. "What did he say?"

She thought about saying something, sharing that is experience aloud to make sense of it, or to get the skin sheet to shut up. But she didn't want to listen to Lady Cassandra. "Oh, things. About the Earth."

"Why not speak with me?" she huffed, primly. " _I'm_ the last human. I'm the guest of the hour."

Graeagle, who had been standing back, listening, cleared his throat. Cassandra, of course, did not listen.

"I'm human too," Rose replied.

"Oh, I doubt that," Lady Cassandra sniffed, voice decending to a new level of frigidness.

Stupid. How could she forget? "Ah, sorry," Rose said. "Er, so what happened to the human race?" If the panserbjornes had gotten off Earth, surely the humans had too.

"They say humanity has spread itself to every star in the universe," Lady Cassandra said. "Of course, that's assuming those half-breeds are human. Tch. Everybody lost their standards, throwing themselves at any blue-skinned, silicon-based creature that came their way. Even before then, there were all those witchy bastard children. Thank God that species stayed behind."

"The witches all stayed? On Earth?" Rose asked, incredulous. She and Shekinah turned to look out the window. The Earth had long since been burned to dust, the Doctor had said.

"Some people even stayed with them," Lady Cassandra sniffed. She didn't say "Good riddance," but the sentiment was coming off of her in waves. "Fools, the lot of them, diluting thier blood like that. I kept myself pure. And what about you, dog girl?" she asked, imperiously. "You seem like a bit of a mongrel yourself."

Shekinah growled, low in his throat, loud enough to turn a few heads. "I'm human," Rose declared. "I'm more human than you ever were. My mum and dad were born here, and I was born here as well. You might've been born here too, but that doesn't make you human. You think you kept yourself pure, but really you're just lipstick and skin, operated on until you threw out your own daemon 'cause he made you too 'fat.' "

"I think you'd look nicer without that ragged old furball following you around." Lady Cassandra sniffed. "But if you want to keep it, that's your choice. A bad one, but to each his own."

"Wolf," Shekinah growled.

"Excuse me?" Lady Cassandra asked, surprised. Some social conventions just didn't change.

"I am a wolf. Not a furball." And before the Lady could trouble them with her presence again, the two of them headed for the door.

Graeagle fell in step besides them. "Are you human?" he asked, with quiet interest.  
"Yeah," she replied. No point in lying now. The whole room had likely heard.

"Dangerous words you said." He was as reserved in tone as ever, but Rose caught something different in his manner. "That was not necessary. You could've let her comments slide. As self-important as she seems, her word does hold lot of weight. It would not do to anger her.

Rose figured that she would be in a lot of trouble, but she held her head high and said, "I don't care. I stand by what I said. She's awful. Especially for forgetting you."

Graeagle said nothing. But the silence felt more welcoming. Enough for Rose to stop worrying about what she'd find at the Steward's office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as it turns out, I'm completely horrible with juggling real life and a steady update schedule. A thousand apologies for my ridiculous lateness (and on a filler chapter too. I'm not very good at plotty bits, eh?) Because of this, I'll be changing updates to every other Monday starting today. It's not fair for me to promise something and not deliver. (Although, this doesn't mean I won't update early when time allows--likely around February, when midterms and SATs are done.)
> 
> Also, side note: I'm looking for a beta reader. If anyone's interested, contact me here or on my tumblr (in-mutual-weirdness.tumblr.com/ask)


	7. Wrong Place

Xenoromanticism had its problems and pitfalls. For one thing, not many species had daemons, and a good many just shy know what to do with them. Eliyre (though she'd had a different name) had plenty of experience with being treated as a bystander when really she was, in certain ways, a person of her own.

Jabe, however, took the massive panther in stride.

"I like her," Eliyre said, satisfied. "No problems with me. Quite tiresome, when someone doesn't know how to address me."

"Now's not the time for that," the Doctor said. "We've got an engine to deal with."

"You asked her to tag along," Eliyre noted, leaving it at that.

Quite unfair, really, chatting with yourself and still not getting the last word. But he really did have other things to worry about.

He'd fallen behind during his musings. Jabe, a little ways ahead of him, turned back and called, "Doctor? What's taking you so long? "

He caught up to her easily. "Nothing. Just thinking."

"Of what?"

"Things," he replied.

Jabe let out an amused huff, while Eliyre rolled her eyes. Yes, perhaps he could've thought of a better way to divert the conversation, but now they'd arrived at the maintenance duct and Jabe was letting him in.

"So, tell me, Jabe," he asked, changing the subject to something better. "What's a tree like you doing in a place like this?"

"Respect for the Earth," came the automatic, scripted reply.

He probably shouldn't have expected any better, but still. They were both perceptive, and she shouldn't have debased herself with a fake answer. "Ah, come on. Everyone on that platform is worth zillions."

"Zillions? Is that a new mathematical term?" Eliyre remarked, raising her tail haughtily.

"Come off it, I'm trying to be laid back," he complained.

Jabe smiled. "Are you normally so conflicted?"

"Yes," Eliyre said, ignoring the Doctor's equally emphatic "Nope." That made her outright laugh.

"Suppose that's enough of an answer for you," he muttered.

Jabe looked fondly at the vine that curled over her torso, stroking the bit resting by her collarbone. "Mine has its moods," she said. "But it's quiet for the most part. Must be nice, having someone to always talk to."

Eliyre made a low rumbling noise that could've been agreement or contentment. The Doctor patted her quickly on the head as she passed in front of him. "Yeah," he said, softly. "Very nice."

He saw another door further in, the door to the engine room. He was already reaching for the sonic screwdriver before he saw the keypad. Practically Pavlovic, this was. (Although as much as he'd wish for an unlocked door, he'd be afraid for the universe if important doors went unlocked.)

"You'd know how much having someone matters, wouldn't you, Doctor?" Jabe asked, sounding much more somber than she had in the halls. "Need them all the more when you've got nothing left. Nothing but them and the danger."

The seconds seemed to slow as she finished speaking. Memories clamored for his attention, but he forced himself to stay in the present, to count out the moments so this would only last as long as it was supposed to. No point in slowing his perception because of emotional burdens.  One, two, three...

"I scanned you earlier," she continued. Eliyre had stopped pacing and was staring at her instead. "The metal machine refused to admit you existed. And when it did identify you, I was hard pressed to believe it myself. But it was right. I know where you're from," she said. And then he couldn't hold it back anymore, the silence in his head where there should've been voices, songs. He could fill it with memories, but what good would it do? It was all just the past.

They were gone, and they would not come back. Few things in time were permanent, but this...

"I just wanted to say how sorry I am."

He felt a rough hand resting lightly on his arm, a tail brushing his leg, in an attempt at comfort. He moved to hold them for a moment, and in that little moment, let himself cry.

 

\---------

 

She feared questions of her own, but got none. The silence got to the point where Rose had to try making small talk. "You know, I've never met a panserbjorne before,” she said, lamely.

He gave her a look of idle curiosity. “Really? I suppose not. We’re not very outgoing, or visible. I came only because I am expected to, as a minor royal.” He shook himself briefly, his armor shifting in response. "I belong more to the forges and battlefields than any party," he said, stumbling a little over the last word. "But things are expected of us, and we must get our metals from somewhere."

"Star metal, isn't it?" It was a half-remembered phrase, equal parts history lesson and fairy tale.

Graeagle nodded, looking a little impressed. "Adamantium and the rest. Bit of a traditional word, less specific. I am surprised you know."

"I'm surprised I remembered. Learnt it a long time ago."

"Very long time ago," Shekinah said.

Graeagle looked at Shekinah, twisting his mouth into what Rose thought was a thoughtful expression. "Your daemon?"

Rose nodded. "Shekinah."

"I have not seen this kind of animal before. What species are you?"

"I'm a wolf," Shekinah answered, bemused by the prospect of anonymity. They never got that back on Earth.

"I'm surprised you didn't ask earlier," Rose said.

"Oh? Why is that?"

She shrugged. "Thought you were going to ask about my species and things."

Graeagle gave a noncommittal hum, although one deep enough to rattle her bones. "It's not my place to ask. Lady Cassandra may be showy, but I won't trouble you. Unless you wish to talk. Besides, you seem to have found companionship. And there are other humans out there. Everyone knows that."

It felt strange, knowing that there were still people--no, humans, specifically--when the Earth was dying. The concept of humans without Earth felt unreal. Almost, she admitted, like a person without a daemon. She'd lived her entire life with both. But that didn't mean it wasn't possible or acceptable. Walking next to Graeagle, chatting with Raffalo--it had made things less scary. Sure, the Doctor looked more human, but now he seemed remote. They were people, saying things that people said and acting like people did. It made her feel familiar, more grounded. And if outside, the sun was about to consume the Earth?

Well, she wasn't okay with it, necessarily. It was still her planet, and losing it would hurt. But there were people out there. She recalled her little reverie about cities, built on planet rings. One planet didn't seem as bad, not when there were so many more. Not when she could pop back to her family whenever she needed it.

Maybe she could stick with the Doctor, like the Face had said. Maybe she could handle things.

Shekinah went still, cocking his head in confusion. "Do you... smell that?" he asked, looking straight ahead but still directing the question to Graeagle.

The panserbjorne stopped to see--well, smell for himself. And then he was off, racing around the bend. Rose followed, calling out, "Wait!" even though she suspected he'd have stopped in front of some gruesome scene.

She wasn't disappointed. "Is that--?"

"The Steward," Graeagle confirmed. "Someone interfered with the sun filter."

They stood before a sealed room, blocked by thick metal door. Wisps of white-grey smoke escaped from beneath a crack, which shone with intense white light. "Is he--?" Rose couldn't finish her sentence. She covered her mouth and nose, but she could taste the smell of charred flesh, coating her tongue and teeth in noxious fumes. It smelled like a roast, similar enough to evoke disturbing imagery, but dissimilar enough to create a visceral disgust. Would the panserbjorne care if she vomited?

Shekinah whimpered. "It's--it smells like Raffalo..." And now it was the cheery blue plumber lying dead behind those doors. Even if Shekinah hadn't risen to his feet and bolted, Rose would've run too.

"Wait!" Graeagle called. But Shekinah was fast, and they were out of earshot before the panserbjorne could do anything.

 

\---------

 

As soon as the Doctor opened the door, the sound of whirring fans filled the room. The three of them looked up at a cavernous space, all metal and industrial. Space yawned around the austere little platform they stood on. It lead to a walkway, above which were four massive steel fans on a long axis, spinning into blurs as they cycled the air.  The Doctor whistled. "Graeagle would like this. For sure," he said. "All that retro grungy look they've got going on here. Bit like his larger forges, I bet."

"You've seen the smith bears' forges?" Jabe asked. "They're fairly secretive about them. How did you get in?"

"Same way I got in here, pretty much." A nearby panel caught his eye, and he went in for a closer look. This one...jackpot. That was the station-wide thermostat. And it was reading several degrees too high. He pulled out the screwdriver again, when--

"There! What's that?"

"That" was a scuttling little spherical droid, which scurried from nearby the panel like a disturbed spider. "Is that part of the 'retro'?" Jabe asked.

"I doubt it." Eliyre made a running lap for the wall, but fell just out of reach, sliding back to the ground with embarrassed annoyance. Probably for the better, considering the weight difference. 

She flicked her ears in irritation. "I wouldn't have crushed it. I'm careful."

The Doctor blinked. "Ah. Did I say that out loud?"

"Didn't have to."

Almost too quickly to see, a slim green vine shot out from under Jabe's dress, snagging the little bot. She presented it to him with a wry smile.

"Nice liana," the Doctor said.

Despite the tree's dark brown-green complexion, he could see the hint of a blush behind her cheek. "Thanks. I'm not supposed to show them in public," she admitted.

Raising an eyebrow, he took the droid and quickly disabled its wriggling movement. It went limp. Another pass with the sonic screwdriver popped it open and--

Well. That was interesting.

"Sabotage," he reported. "That's what they're for." They. Yes, there had to be more than one. Spider droids like these always worked in groups. "Someone's been getting up to some funny business."

"Who?" Jabe asked.

Eliyre gave it a sniff, frowning as she thought. "Someone on this ship. Probably from the main room. If we went back--" Without warning, she turned and bolted. Or rather, tried to before remembering that the door had shut behind them. 

"Woah there, tiger," the Doctor said, feigning a bad American accent. "Slow down."

Eliyre gave him a sour glare. "Not funny. We've got a culprit to track down. And the rest of the spider droids are still running around the satellite. Who knows what they could be up to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that by now, all my readers know not to check for an update until the day after. Wish I had a TARDIS, so I could just slip into the Time Vortex and write out the chapters and I could post them in time.
> 
> And yes, the next chapter will finish the time pun. I'm so unoriginal.


	8. Author's Note (No I'm not canceling)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An explanation of where I plan to go with this fic. Namely, how I refuse to let it die.

Okay, first off, those who are still reading this fic, don't panic. I'm not abandoning it. (But I'm sure you know that by now) I love the story too much to let out go, and there's plenty of fun stuff with Ten that's to come.

That said... The End Of The World bit has been bothering me for a long time. I didn't think enough about formatting, or how to write episodically while still maintaining an overarching narrative. And this portion of the fic was incredibly poorly planned. I had no real resolutions in mind, and I think it shows. I want to be a quality writer, and my overall execution of all this has been, in my opinion, lacking. (This dissatisfaction may have lead to me starting other projects instead when I should've been tackling this one. My bad. I'm sorry.)

So this fic is going to be in for some serious reformatting, and the last few chapters will get a rewrite, now that I've done some thinking and know where I want to go. The search for a beta is ongoing, but I'm sure that I will find something.

I hope at least some of you will stick around. I'll do my best not to keep people waiting. In the meantime, do try my other fics! And thank you for continuing to read my stuff! 


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